Who wants to complain about the economy with me?

I totally didn't read into it as being a materialistic thing. What you were saying is something I have been asking myself and my FI for some time. How on earth do people afford to raise children? We do not own a car, we live downtown so can walk pretty much everywhere, but I looked into getting one and the extra expense plus gas and insurance was OUTRAGEOUS. We are not poor, and are in a higher than average income bracket but I could not actually see how we could afford a vehicle and not be stretched. A car to a lot of people is a necessity.

I guess I should be happy that we have a place to live (all 685 sq feet of spacious downtown condo living), and can make our mortgage payments. As previously mentioned, there is always someone a lot worse off.

Still glad to know that I am not the only one that worries about how to afford a family!

Most credit cards will do this but you have to have good credit. If you have bed credit you are SOL. Also I read in economic journals that banks are going to raise interest rates on credit cards b/c they are being hit hard. WTF?

I wonder what these banks will do if they raise the rates and people simply file bankruptcy because they are unable to pay their loans. Talk about getting hit hard then....

Anyways, I hear what you are all saying. We are currently selling our 2nd car and working schedules out to carpool. I wish we had the ability to use public transportation, but in Oregon, it's a little too rural for that to be practical for us. Booo!! It's going to be hard enough for us to juggle one car since we both work 45 mins away (thankfully at the same place.) Steve sometimes works a different schedule than me and so far we either go in early and hang outside reading a book or something else. It's def not ideal, but we want to start saving the money we spend on the car payment.

I hate the economy. We already have a child and it is true, you do find ways to make it work, but it's so stressful. Money is on my mind from the time I wake up until the time I go to bed (and sometimes in my dreams) It's horrible, I swear I'm going to end up in the hospital being so stressed out all the time. We have a house, but it's small and nothing fancy at all, it actually really needs some work. We both have car payments, but we can't get rid of a car because we both have to drive a lot and we live in the woods. We don't do anything because we don't have any extra money and I feel like I'm always picking and choosing which bills are more important to be paid this week.

It totally sucks! I know we should be grateful that we have a roof over our heads and that we have jobs and a way to get to work, etc... but it's so hard to be grateful when you are so stressed and living day to day with no money saved. boo

I agree with you 100%! And just to clarify I don't own a car or have a fancy house or anything like that. I intentionally don't own a car b/c (a) its very expensive and ( I love walking everywhere and commuting by mass transportation. Its so much better for the environment.

I am not going to pretend like it wouldn't be nice to own a house and all that jazz but I am sooooo not a materialistic person. I hope my complaining didn't come off that way. I just wondered how people are able to afford children and mortages. I am talking about basics such as paying into your healthcare and retirement funds not about vacation homes and shopping kwow what I mean?

I totally was not implying that I thought you were materialistic. I was just meant that if anything good comes out of this crappy economy is that we'll learn once again to live with less and go back to basics! I have had to really look at my budget and cut out stuff like soda (totally addicted) and we eat out quite a bit less and we are car pooling when we can, because after rent, food, gas and paying for the wedding there isn't much left after that. Like Rachel, in Vermont you can't use public transportation because it doesnt' really exist! And because eventually I want a house and kids I have made the choice to go back to school. The income i wil make eventually out weighs the loans I have to take out to afford it.

We have a baby, two cars (although I personally only buy used cars and pay them off in full so I don't have to make payments. Gas, although it's gotten better, is still a bit of a pain though), a mortgage, over $150,000 in student loans, credit card debt, all the usual monthly bills, a dog... you get the point. Anyway, "making it work" is something we are attempting to do but it's not working out so well!

It's especially a tense subject with us (finances I mean) because I haven't worked since I had Aiden and am going back to school next week plus doing an internship (ie. working for free) so that's 9 more months of me not working.

As far as the how do we manage with a baby question, it's not that hard because I don't believe in excessive material items anyway so I've been able to save a lot of money on unnecessary items, or figure out cheaper alternatives. Plus he's so young I don't think he requires a lot of the stuff older children may. Hopefully by then the economy won't suck so much or I might be in trouble.

Basically the only reason we are surviving is that Brian busts his ass working about 60+ hours/week and I have a nice collection of stuff that I'm able to sell on ebay when we need some extra $$.

Glenda I am totally bitching with you! For the past month I have been looking for a job in the town I recently moved to. Mind you it is a city, I have a Masters degree and five years experience and I was just finally hired yesterday! Yes my husband is working but between my student loans, cc debt, wedding debt, rent, utilities, his car payment, his student loan debt, groceries, and the move we are flat broke! Since it took so long, I will have to put my daughter's back to school clothes, supplies and the first month of day care on credit. GRRR!

I agree with you 100%! And just to clarify I don't own a car or have a fancy house or anything like that. I intentionally don't own a car b/c (a) its very expensive and ( I love walking everywhere and commuting by mass transportation. Its so much better for the environment.

I am not going to pretend like it wouldn't be nice to own a house and all that jazz but I am sooooo not a materialistic person. I hope my complaining didn't come off that way. I just wondered how people are able to afford children and mortages. I am talking about basics such as paying into your healthcare and retirement funds not about vacation homes and shopping kwow what I mean?

Totally understood, wasn't meaning to say that you are materialistic. I'm glad that in Canada we don't have to pay for our health care!

the economy does not suck at all. have you driven by the mall lately? the parking lots are full. the nintendo wii comes out and you can't find one in a store until a month ago? no, what we are experiencing is called inflation.

what I want to complain about is the fact that our country is sitting on so much oil and we refuse to drill. why? Im sick and tired of paying $4 for a gallon of gas when I could be paying $1.50 and our neighbors to the south, Mexico probably has double the oil we have. why can't we just buy/rely from them instead of the middle east? and the middle east... we are dumping billions of dollars into iraq. why can't they pay us back in oil? who ever said this war was about oil was very, very wrong.

I read this post yesterday and was thinking of joining you girls in the complaining but, couldnt think of anything useful to add. So, yesterday, I sat down to do the bills only to realize that we went way over budget in the past 1.5 months and have to dig into our savings in order to avoid the ever increasing finance charges on the CC. We had a financially straining summer with lots of birthdays and I was a MOH in a wedding with a few more that we attended as guests. My husband keeps compalaining that we "cant have everything we want" and he complains because I take care of the finances and won't let him spend. So, today, I decided to chime in. I agree that the economy has really put a strain on everyone!! But, like a lot of the other girls have said, we need to be grateful for what we have! Can someone please carry this message through to my hubby??

we have 3 mortgages so it is so scary...luckily one place is a rental but we just bought a home to remodel and have been living in our loft while it gets finished...we were supposed to move in late august/early september but now it looks like it will be mid-october so another 2 months of paying 2 mortgages but only living in 1 place...gulp. it is def. scary...on top of that the contractors are giving us the most absurd prices...we are way over budget.

luckily we only have 1 car and we are not driving that much...we are staying at my parents on the weekends because their house is closer to our new home and steve can then do work on the weekend...and my parents are feeding us.

steve and i are both pretty frugal people...we both make a pretty good living and we dont buy stuff...like clothes, electronics, etc...so we are really good savers so we have some padding. we also work ALOT...and i mean ALOT..we both work at least 10 hour days and i even work about 6 hours a day on the weekend so that is why we make as much as we do.

we are so busy working and dealing with baby that we have no time to spend money on us...like no dinners out, no movies, no shopping...which i guess is a good thing.

my parents aren't feeling the crunch at all...they have what i call "refugee mentality"...they have been through it all (vietnam war, living in refugee camp, coming to new country and working in sweat shop) so they have always been savers, have always done without luxuries.

about affording a baby: jack is pretty cheap..he breastfeeds and supplements with formula so that is about $20 a month. he is eating solids so the baby food comes to another $40 a month. then he has diapers (but steve orders so i dont know how much that is)...we dont spend more on him than that...clothes and toys were given to him.